Blissful Ordinariness and Occupational Therapy

To me, blissful ordinariness can't be defined by a definition but by experiences. Everyone experiences it and it looks different for everyone. An example that I think everyone can relate to is it's being reminded to not take your health for granted when you're sniffly and can't breathe out of your nose. The blissful ordinariness of being able to breathe easily. It's the things that we don't even think twice about doing until we can't do them anymore and have to come up with different ways to do them. Another example would be getting up in the morning and getting dressed, brushing your teeth, and making breakfast - things you do every day without thinking about the steps involved. When you are unable to mindlessly do your every day activities because of an injury or illness, occupational therapy is there for you. OT practitioners approach client intervention holistically, so we consider your roles, occupations, performance patterns in your specific environment and context from the beginning. This information provides a sense of who someone is and what is important to them. You are essentially figuring out their "ordinary" and what is going to help them to get back engaging in that. To achieve this type of understanding of another person, there must be a trustworthy and empathetic relationship between the client and the practitioner. In occupational therapy, we call this the therapeutic relationship. It's what sets us apart from other professions and what makes occupational therapy so effective. It is hard to define what occupational therapy is, but it is clear that occupational therapy cares about more than just what you cannot do. We care about getting you back to your blissful ordinary.